Technology
"Sufficiently Advanced Magic" When you get down to it, magic is little more than another form of science. And if we can use our science to develop brilliant systems, imagine what could be done with telekinesis. Elevators The city of Ethax is extremely small in terms of land area, and most land is already owned and guarded jealously. Proprietors solved this problem by building multiple floors connected by ladders or stairs. This was made easier for the creators by access to telekinesis, but it was still a pain to have to climb them every time. Since there was no alternative, people dealt with it. Eventually the shipbuilding guild (which is growing to become more and more important) implemented a telekinetically operated hoist sort of system. It was initially meant to be used just for their warehouses; they used it to lower and raise cargo between floors. One of the brighter workers at one of the warehouses developed a sort of path system (using a cable) and enclosure with rails, which virtually removed the risk of anything falling out. Since this happened, similar designs have proliferated throughout the city. They have been improved upon by using a pulley and break system, which both decreases the arcane load required and makes it safer in case of any failures. Any establishment which has reason to have more than 3 floors almost has to have an elevator, to the point where single-story buildings are considered quaint, and arcane elevators serves as a sign of how 'upmarket' you are. A new phenomenon, pioneered by a rich noble (possibly Primus himself) is that of a 'great glass elevator'. It is quite simple in principle, if less so in implementation. The device takes the form of a glass capsule bounded by a magnetic ceiling and floor. It is lifted along a cable by the actions of a large hunk of lodestone and a most potent mage. The capsule is entered with a qualified arcanist, who propels it to a given height. Once this happens, the passenger may then gaze out over the entire city in all its glory. In practice you can only see about a quarter of it; but because of the location this is the most opulent quarter. Artists have been tripping over themselves in their rush to get access to the view; it would be even worse if they could bring easels up there. Until then, some of the more engineering-oriented ones have built primitive and highly risky towers which accomplish the same purpose. It is whispered in the hallowed halls that Primus originally commissioned the project as a way of eliminating corrupt merchants, two-faced advisors, and/or anyone he finds unsavoury. This is not helped by the amount of foolish and arrogant people who have fallen out while doing a Titanic-style King of the World. Neither is it helped by the fact that many of them are usually extremely sane... Turbine Motors For Ships, and Carriages for the Upper-Class Propulsion and energy are the foundation of technology; most great technologies ultimately just take in energy of one form and turns it into something else. Telekinetic motors do the same thing, just far more obviously than we're used to. In their classical/ medieval age, it was common for harried merchant vessels to quickly stick a metal blade on the back. The least incompetent arcanist, or sometimes a professional one (if they were lucky) would use it to get the ship moving whenever the wind was bad. Eventually this became a fixture on the merchant vessels of the city, and crafting these became an entire industry. Experimenters improved on this design, ending up with a slicing propeller which was constructed out of iron with just a smidge of lodestone at the tips, which makes it that much easier to induce movement in. These motors have also been adapted to work in various other devices, which have been dubbed " Kinetic Transformers" Experimental Technologies, courtesy of the Faraday Generator The technology of the Faraday Generator has just been discovered, but its impossible for any self-respecting scientist to keep his hands off of something so deeply fascinating. Consequently a lot of progress has been made in experimenting with it, including some rather unfortunate results; the price of frantically exploring things you don't understand. One idea which has only been postulated, if not put into practice, is that of a Faraday self driving car. It is based on the syllogism that: 1. Electricity is what gives the magnetic force its direction 2. We can automatically generate electricity 3. Ergo, we can automatically control the magnetic force to flow in a predefined path. Unfortunately for the people, they have no way to control the direction of this current- a fact which the creator of this syllogism quite conveniently overlooked. This has not stopped self-driving vehicles and novelty toys becoming something like perpetual motion machines; with the exception that self-driving vehicles are actually possible. Another experiment, which nearly set the Church and University at each others' throats, was an attempt by the arcanists to 'one-up God' as the high priest put it. The arcanists effectively spent most of their annual budget on building a giant Faraday generator and amassing a ridiculous amount of magnetised iron/lodestone. They attempted to use the generator to create enough energy to summon their own perfect storm. Unfortunately for the scientists, the Church won this one. The energy created had far too low a voltage to flow through the air. A few centuries hence, a fellow scholar will read about this experiment in a garbled and/or fictionalised account. He will then develop on the idea using his own knowledge of voltage and current, and invent a strange device known as a Tesla Coil. Another idea that has been put forward is a "Faraday's self driving car". It uses electricity to generate a magnetic field, which pushes the wheels in a predetermined direction. The result is a ship or cart which mves itself without any need for human interaction. This is rather bad at handling anything more complex than straight line, which makes it, like so many experimental technologies, a useless curiosity. "Kinetic Transformers": Clockpunk Motors Kinetic Transformers are basically a primitive form of motors, powered by telekinetic magnetism. These often take the form of extremely convoluted systems of gears and pulleys, which are used to get the energy to the place where it is needed; and flowing in the right direction. The Capitol has an ingenious mechanical system which mirrors the ball drop (or whatever) they had in the Florentine Duomo. These technologies are, like many others, little more than curiosities. However they are excellent curiosities; the capitol and arcane university buildings have impressive 'sliding doors' which use a pressure plate and an ingenious mechanism to open whenever someone gets close. Even more Rube Goldberg machines exist as sketches which are condemned never to recieve funding. Auto-orienting ships (using compasses) The cost of a good captain and navigator are higher than you would believe. Even with good ones, it is surprisingly easy to have them mess up and cost you your precious shipment of cargo. Some merchants, including Primus himself, have gotten involved in experimental vessels which automatically orient themselves. The exact nature of these vessels varies. Some are ships which simply have an attached compass, while others attempt to have the wheel (or motor) itself bound to a magnetic needle of some kind. This is the most primitive example of a self driving vehicle, and as might be expected. At the moment it exists more as a curiosity or statement than a practical technology. However, as statements, they make excellent merchant ships for wowing customers; nothing is more impressive than a silver ship whose goods seem to unload themselves invisibly while arcanists wave their hands belowdecks. Shipbuilding and Trade The Venetians are famous for their naval empire; however theirs lacks a certain magic. Ethax is, and always has been, a city built on shipping and trade;their naval magitech is decades (even centuries) ahead of its time. The city is too busy exploring its own science and building its economy to explore other nations; it trades with fellow Italian city-states and the Ottoman Empire, rather than turning its attention to the new world. The ships of the city are massive wooden crafts, which are armoured with metal when exploring hostile waters. The merchant fleets are often made of lodestone wood, which essentially means that it has some lodestone in it; powerful arcanists can simply propel the ship using these (and their own lodestone reserves), for keeping control in turbulent weather. The wheel of the ship itself is usually made out of either iron or lodestone (iron is cheaper, but requires separate lodestone reserves on board). This eliminates the need for dramatic 'wrestling with the wheel' scenes, since the arcane advisor onboard (which all large ships have, as additional insurance) simply deals with it telekinetically.